Chelsea Gaffer Maurizio Sarri has hailed the impact of Unai Emery following Arsenal’s strong start to the season.

The Gunners have recovered from two consecutive defeats at the start of the season to sit fifth in the league table, just 3 points behind the final Champions League place. Much of this upturn in form has been attributed to the “offensive organisation” of the team by the Spaniard Emery.

The Italian manager Sarri, arrived at Chelsea with the difficult job of replacing Antonio Conte, and has taken to life like a duck to water at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues not tasting defeat in all competitions since the Community Shield defeat to Manchester City at the start of August.

Sarri was quick to heap praise on Emery telling Gazetto dello Sport (h/t Metro) that: “Emery is a scholar and an excellent professional,’. ‘The offensive organisation of his football is of the highest level.”

It will be interesting to see how Emery will respond to this accolade, whether he takes it as ‘Mourinho-style’ mind games, chooses to ignore the comments or heaven forbid, take the compliment from the Chelsea boss.

Both Sarri and Emery have received commendation from the normally “hard-to-please” English media for the manner in which their teams have absorbed their ideas despite the short time they have managed their sides.

With the race for the Top 4 reaching fever-pitch levels already, it is unlikely that this is the last time we hear them talking about each other.